Magyar News, 2004. szeptember-2005. augusztus (15. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2005-02-01 / 6. szám
Christmas with a foreign eye Christmas with Árpád By Ray Reece IT’S beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Szeged. Band after band of starry gold lights has been strung above Kárász utca, the wide and wonderful pedestrian highway that constitutes the center of the centrum. Many of the shops have turned red and green, and the two little villages that pop up in the centrum at this time of year are nearly complete. These are vendor villages, and when I first saw them a year ago I could scarcely believe the number of merchants and the rich variety of items for sale. To explore, I started at the gateway to Széchenyi tér, edging past the bandstand, and made my way amidst huge crowds through a blocks-long channel of wooden stalls, each sporting a peaked red roof. I could easily have spent my entire evening in this first village, munching on roasted chestnuts, sipping hot cocoa or Hungarian wine, listening to the chimes and trumpets of the season as logged the surfeit of goods on display. It was a classic Christmas locale, better than but similar to those I'd known in the US. Had I stayed, though, I'd have missed something very different a few blocks away on the sprawling plaza of Dóm tér, which lies within the walls of Szeged's stately Dóm Cathedral. There I found the second vendor village, larger than the first, at least in area, and dramatically punctuated on two sides by roaring bonfires. These fires in the cold night air lent a touch of wildness that appealed to me as I strolled past the booths of dozens of vendors whose goods tended more toward authentic Hungarian handicrafts than in the first village. There was more food, too, including spare ribs and whole chickens and com on the cob over charcoal pits, their aromas adding to the primitive feel of the village. At length I encountered a closed tent, not a booth, and from this tent came strains of music decidedly not of the Christmas kind. Instead of chimes and choirs of angels, I heard a guttural male chanting, like chords on a broken bass guitar, that sounded like a message from the dawn of time. It was compelling, so I entered the tent and there beheld, in a haze of incense, a tall Hungarian with a chiseled face in knee-high boots who was flanked by companions, one of them wearing the robe and fur cap of a magyar tribesman. There were bows and arrows for sale, daggers and swords and strange silver totems on leather thongs. I was mesmerized, the more so after a glass of pálinka offered by the tall one. And suddenly it wasn't Christmas anymore. I was in a tent on the plain at "pusztaszer, where Árpád united the tribes, and I could hear a shaman singing.__________ Ray Reece is a journalist from Texas currently working in Hungary. Courtesy of the Budapest Sun Above: The Dorn in Szeged Below: The Cityhall in Szeged More about Tsunami From The Magyar News we received new information. Á MALÉV plane that happened to be near the Tsunami brought home 148 Hungarian tourists. They are still looking for 30 in all the effected areas. Tourists from other countries originally in bigger numbers, so their loss was also bigger. Sweden claims 1,500 missing, Germany 1,000 missing. Hungary’s medical group served many areas treating the people against all the possibilities. They are returning to Hungary Budapest sent a water purifier system, machine, chemicals, vehicles to carry it, and personnel. This equipment produces treated water and the quantity is in a daily production sufficient to serve a city of 30,000 people. On January 5, 2005 at the Hungarian Parliament with the participation of politicians and lawmakers the flag was lowered to half mast. The Cabinet also turned to all the leaders in charge of public buildings to do the same. Also asked for the demonstration of mourning to have three minute silence throughout the country at noon on Wednesday. The Hungarian News Agency, MTI, stopped sending all news from 11:55 to 12:05 that day. All radio stations broke their program for that time, the TV channels followed the events at the Parliament, and after they showed the dramatic pictures of the Tsunami. All public transportation in Budapest stopped for a minute. Everybody full heartedly participated Page 6
